Twitter exploded today (at least my feed did) with discussion about the fact that Uber pays teams of people to book rides via their competitor, Lyft, and then proceeds to recruit the drivers during those rides to leave Lyft and drive for Uber.

I think this is a brilliant strategy.

Before going any deeper on this, I want to be sure to say that I am not talking about the issue of ordering rides and then cancelling them. If either company does this on purpose, or encourages it in the slightest, that is totally below the belt and I am not supportive of that in any way, shape or form. Having said that, I do think rides are being ordered and cancelled by both. However, I don’t think either company is asking employees to do it. My bet is that these employees are so passionate about their employer, and want to beat their competitor so deeply, that they are actually booking and cancelling rides on their own accord. That’s tough to control but I would also bet both companies are being much louder about telling employees to stop this behavior.

I get to work with a unique and diverse set of people at Weber State University. One of the most interesting groups is UCAID, which stands for the Utah Center for Applied Innovation and Design. UCAID serves the nation’s aviation and outdoor products industries by conducting contracted applied scientific and engineering research for our industry partners and clients. The 22,000 square foot building is located in Farmington, Utah. You can see it on the East side of the freeway, just before Lagoon. There is a lot of cool stuff going on inside of that building!Read More »